Silburn Steadman has been living in Maidstone, Manchester, since 1975 and has been a farmer for more than 40 years.
The father of six says farming has been his main income earner all his life, but over the last several years, he has faced challenges in getting his produce to market due to poor road conditions.
He is therefore grateful for the paving of the Grass Piece farm road in the area by the Government under the National Farm Road Rehabilitation Programme.
“The new road is helpful to us. It means a lot to us and we are thankful for it. The road was rough for [farmers and] higglers before the repairs,” he said.
The Grass Piece stretch is among two farm roads, each 0.6 kilometre long, that were officially opened in Manchester North Western on December 15 by Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries Pearnel Charles Jr. The other is Back Street (Wilderness).
Approximately 100 farmers will benefit from ease of access to their farms and markets as a result of the road repairs, which were undertaken at a total cost of some $17 million.
Forty-seven-year-old Back Street farmer Barbara Forbes also expressed gratitude for the newly paved road in her area.
She says she no longer has to carry heavy bags of ground provisions on her head, as she can now easily access transportation.
“I carried the load on my head on the bad roads for years because where I [farm], I have to walk there. So now, words cannot explain what the roads mean to me. I cannot find words to give thanks for it.
“I am so happy, and I appreciate it and I hope and wish I will live to see it go through to Sommerset, because that would be a shorter journey for us,” she expressed.
Charles said that for financial year 2022-2023, a sum of $670 million has been allocated to repair 71 farm roads across the island.
“Rural Jamaica will grow on the back of agriculture, so it is important to continue the journey across Jamaica, rehabilitating as many roads as we can to increase market access and improve how you transport your produce,” he said.
OTHER ASSISTANCE AVAILABLE
The minister said that the Government is promoting agriculture as a key growth driver.
“In 2020, Jamaica saw production of close to 698,000 tonnes, and in 2021, we saw record production of more than 770,000 tonnes; so we want the farmers of Manchester to know that we are depending on you to make us break those records year after year,” he noted.
He cited other assistance to farmers in Manchester, including a gravity-fed drip irrigation project under which 350 farmers each received a 1,000-gallon water tank and a quarter-acre drip irrigation system.
The minister also reminded the farmers present that the Rural Agricultural Development Authority (RADA) team will be available to offer training, knowledge transfer and field visits through the extension officers, who will engage and empower them with the knowledge to boost output.
RADA’s acting Chief Executive Officer, Winston Simpson, appealed to the farmers in the beneficiary communities to make good use of the newly paved roads to boost production and productivity.
“RADA is here and we are committed to you, the farmers, to give the necessary hand-holding so that you can produce. We are here to make sure that North West Manchester contributes to gross domestic product in a meaningful way,” Simpson said.
Member of Parliament for the area, Mikael Phillips, spoke about the problem of praedial larceny that plagues the farmers of Wilderness, Maidstone, Sherhampton and Huntley.
“I would like to see them (praedial larcenists) get caught and have justice brought to them. Something has to be done because the livelihood of our farmers is threatened by these two-footed thieves,” he said.
Phillips said there is a third farm road at Honey Hill in Medina that is being rehabilitated, and the road to the neighbouring district of Sommerset needs to be fixed.- JIS
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